Battle

As War Machine, Rhodes raided the intended target of the attack in Hong Kong, but found once again that the Ten Rings were one step ahead of him. His superiors informed Rhodes that they tracked the Ten Rings cell to a biotech research facility, but they had taken hostages and used them as human shields to escape from the police and military forces.

War Machine managed to disable the terrorists and let the hostages run, and resisted their attacks, retaliating without killing them, as War Machine aimed his shots at the terrorists' body armor, and used his repulsor to incinerate the virus they intended to release in Hong Kong.

When he finished off the terrorists, Rhodes received a call from Tony Stark, asking for his assistance in dealing with a situation in New York City, but Rhodes informed him that, being in Asia, it would take him at least an hour to arrive.

Meanwhile, Rhodes deduced that given the terrorists didn't even have the usual weapons he previously fought, and the equipment of this cell couldn't even slow him down, the whole situation must have been a trap. At the same moment, the presumed hostages attacked him with heavy weaponry, intending to kill and destroy him.

Rhodes' superiors ordered him not to attack the tank, as it was commissioned and the contract was cancelled due to a dangerous design flaw, a miniature nuclear reactor power core that, if breached, could have the same effect as detonating a dirty bomb. For that reason, Rhodes was ordered to contain it and disable its weapons, but without damaging it.

War Machine analyzed the weapons of the tank, deducing that the cannon was easily avoidable, and he could resist the shoots of the gatling guns. The tank prepared a Sidewinder "Ex-Wife" Missile and attacked War Machine with it. Rhodes, confident the missile wouldn't work like the one added to his previous armor, received a devastating hit of the missile.

War Machine's systems rebooted in time to avoid being crushed by the tank, and Rhodes tried to gain some time destroying the soil under the tank to bury it. However, the tank was able to crawl back to the surface and attack War Machine in coordination with the other terrorists.

Rhodes requested back up again, but the situation in New York made it difficult. Rhodes was attacked with another Sidewinder "Ex-Wife" Missile, and although this time he could destroy it before being hit, the shockwave threw him into one of the nearby buildings.

To gain the upper hand in the battle, War Machine smashed the ground below the terrorists, and managed to disable them using a miniaturized Stark Sonic Cannon. Rhodes received another direct hit of the cannon, but let the tank pass over him, to reach the only place where he was out its weapons' reach.

Rhodes lifted the tank, and intended to transport it to a nearby battleship, but the activation of the tank's self-destruction forced him to devise a quick solution to stop its nuclear core from contaminating Hong Kong, and threw it to the bottom of the sea.

Rhodes' superiors deduced from the analysis of the remains of the tank and the scarce intel gathered from the captured terrorists that the intention of the Ten Rings was to lure War Machine and obtain his armor, as they obtained technology from over a dozen legit companies through the black market, including Stark Industries.

As the remains of the Battle Tank rested at the bottom of the sea and the radiation levels were as good as could be expected, War Machine abandoned Hong Kong in order to lend a hand with the Battle of New York.[1]

Aftermath

The Ten Rings successfully scanned Rhodes' armor with all possible devices, thus obtaining invaluable information. Later, a Ten Rings agent gave his report to the Mandarin. Though the Mandarin originally wanted to kill him for failing to obtain the armor, the agent said that with the information they stole the Ten Rings have all they need to destroy Iron Man.[1]